Back Row: Koffi Ettiegne, Kris Galbreath, Cade Robertson, Jonathan Hamp, Brionna Jones
Front Row: Michela Mollica, Natalie Boyd, Jacob Bryant
May 10, 2017 -
Advancing business efficiencies and developing industry solutions can be a challenging task for any student, but when developing said solutions for one of the best online brokers of 2017, challenging becomes an understatement.
Each year, Fidelity Investments charges students with developing real-world solutions to industry dilemmas as part of their College of Business capstone course, Business Policy. This corporate-sponsored competition, titled the Fidelity Case Competition, involves an integrated academic approach, bringing together teams of students from varying majors. Using their diverse backgrounds, and past four years of academic experiences, teams compete against each other to offer their best solutions and a chance at cash prizes.
This year, students from the Empowerment Consulting Group team took home first place on April 29, and with it, $800 cash, each. Team members included Natalie Boyd, Jacob Bryant, Koffi Ettiegne, Kristopher Galbreath, Jonathan Hamp, Brionna Jones, Michela Mollica McCune and Cade Robertson.
“The most rewarding thing was a chance to find my passion,” said Michela Mollica, College of Business senior majoring in Business Computer Information Systems. “I felt passionate about the proposal we came up with. I knew we had a great idea and I wanted Fidelity to hear it.”
Mollica’s team was tasked with developing an SBI strategic business tool from start to finish. In doing so, they needed to perform rigorous industry research to find real-world solutions that would fill Fidelity’s gaps. Mollica, who was the team’s leader and a final presenter, described winning the competition as the “best moment” in her college career.
“This was my favorite class I have ever taken,” said Mollica. Despite her also describing the project as “one of the hardest team work assignments,” she also described it as one of the most valuable, “because it was a real-world task helping a real-world company.”
Congratulations to all winning teams for wrapping up the 2017 year with innovative solutions to the complex business problems of today.